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HENEFER, Summit County; For a place so normally peaceful, there sure was a lot of noise Friday morning.
The sounds of the gentle stream that runs through a small part of Henefer was interrupted by backhoes, drills and hammering.
It's certainly not the environment where you would expect to see bald eagles. However, all the commotion was for them.
"They are really fun to watch,” said Kent Nichols, who owns the small piece of property in Summit County where the eagles nest.
Nichols is used to seeing bald eagles in the trees here all the time. But last year, he also saw a bald eagles nest that had fallen from trees branches above in bad weather and crashed to the ground.
"It just snapped — opped off,” said Nichols.
Nichols contacted Utah's Division of Wildlife Resources to tell them about the nest, and the DWR then contacted Rocky Mountain Power. The agencies then came together to do something about the nest.
Friday morning, the two teams met and put a pole up right where the old nest was. It included a big nesting platform that's perfect for bald eagles.
“It's probably the most elaborate nest platform we've put up,” said Sherry Liguori, an environmental manager for Rocky Mountain Power.
Liguori says they have put up poles with nesting platforms before for osprey, owls and other birds, but this is their first eagle nest.
“Hopefully they will use it this year, and if not, maybe they will come back next year. It’s a stable site with a secure platform,” said Liguori.
Of course, there's no guarantee the eagles will use the nest, but the DWR believes there is a good chance the eagles will notice the nest right away.
"Whatever you build, make it huge. Make it huge and obvious where they can't miss it,” said Bob Walters, a watchable wildlife coordinator with the DWR. “I think we know just enough about it that sometimes it works."
Saturday, February 14th, is also Utah Bald Eagle Day.
Walters helped set up several places in Utah where people who want to see bald eagles can do so for free.
“I started Bald Eagle Day because I wanted to make people aware of the wildlife around them," said Walters. “I don’t know anybody who probably doesn’t feel better after having glimpsed a bald eagle, even if it’s just passing over your house.”
For a list of Utah Bald Eagle Day locations and times across the state, click here.
